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Thanks again to those in the Writing Corner for helping with this story. (Due to rampant bot joining I can't leave a link here. Contact me if you want to join the Writing Corner Telegram)

Special thanks to Donut Holschtein and Jim Koyot for their professional advice in writing this chapter. Check their stories out, they're great writers.

It's been a few months since Lee joined the gym and since Ralph took him under his wing. But now he faces a big decision.

---

Lee adjusted his gym bag on his shoulder as he entered the gym, ready for another workout with Ralph. For the first few weeks after his first workout, there were days where he laid in bed, his muscles too sore for him to move. During those days, he would seriously ponder cancelling his membership just to get a text or call from Ralph talking about how excited he was for the next session. Feeling horrible about letting the bull down, Lee would arrive on time each workout day. Eventually, those days of doubt faded until they were nothing more than a bit of tenderness in the morning that was driven away with a bit of stretching after waking up.

Working out had also gotten easier over the weeks he spent at the gym. He was still exhausted after each workout, but he no longer felt miserable during it. He had come to enjoy the burning in his muscles as he ran, and the pumping as he rowed or lifted. With Ralph encouraging him along the whole way.

Lee had even started overtaking Ralph during workouts, though only in cardio. Lee could run and row longer than the thirty-four-year-old bull, he learnt his age after a couple of weeks working out together, but he was still leagues behind in strength. The white horse felt a great deal of pride in developing greater cardio endurance than the black bull but couldn't help but feel a small amount of envy in how Ralph could so easily lift weights that he himself struggled with.

Eagerly he made his way to the front desk, tying his mane up with a hair-band he had started keeping on his wrist. Scanning in, Lee noticed the front desk had a new display of small and large tubs of workout supplements. As he scanned his keychain card he greeted the receptionist, George, "G'day, Stretch."

"Morning, Rudolph," shot back the short koala without looking away from the computer screen.

Lee scrunched his nose at the jab at how he blushed. He tried thinking of a retort but took so long that Ralph was able to come from the locker room to the desk and clap a hand on Lee's shoulder, spooking the horse.

"Excellent, you're here," Ralph said with a huge smile before asking, "Does your water bottle have water in it? I want you to try something new."

Lee fished his water bottle out of his bag and handed it to the bull, the contents sloshing around the bottle, "A bit, yeah. I got thirsty on the way here so there's not much left."

Ralph unscrewed the lid and looked inside before he nodded and dumped a small baggie of white powder into the bottle.

Lee stood thereand had no idea what to say, only letting out a questioning, "Uhhhhhh...?"

"Relax," Ralph said as he screwed the lid back on and started vigourously shaking the bottle, "It's a pre-workout mix. Same brand I use."

Lee's eyes flicked over to the display of workout supplements on the reception desk and then back down to Ralph with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay, so the gym's also doing a promotion deal," Ralph said, handing the bottle back , "But we wouldn't have taken the deal if it wasn't a good brand."

"Uhuh... What does this stuff even do?" Lee asked, unscrewing the lid and looking into the bottle and saw the now violently red liquid. He replaced the lid, perturbed.

"It gives you the energy to work out longer with stuff like caffeine--"

"Obviously,"

"--and beta-alanine and l-citrulline which help with both energy and muscle growth."

"Muscle growth?" Lee asked, intrigued at possibly getting larger and not just getting in shape.

"Yeah, I also add creatine to mine since this brand doesn't have any in it. It's sold separately," added Ralph.

"Of course it is," Lee muttered and gestured with the bottle, asking, "So this is supposed to make me grow muscle?"

"It won't make you grow muscle. It'll make it easier. You still need to work to gain it. This stuff will make it easier by giving you energy, delay muscle fatigue, improve blood flow and also helps you recover faster from your workout. It's amazing."

"All that? In a small baggie of powder?" Lee asked, doubtful to which Ralph gave a simple nod. He was skeptical that it could do everything that the black bull described or at least in the small amount he had put in his bottle. He took a sip and cringed at the overpowering and artificial fruit punch flavour.

***

"My arms feel weird. Is that normal?" Lee asked, rubbing his tingling arms after he set the dumbbells down with a soft clank. He felt flushed, tingly in his arms, and hyped. It felt like he could just keep going and going. But the tingling concerned him.

"Yeah, that'd be the beta-alanine and put your weights back on the stand," Ralph said as he put plates on a barbell resting on a squat rack, and Lee sheepishly hefted his discarded dumbbells back on their stand.

"So why does it make my arms tingle like this?" Lee asked, still rubbing his arms, staring enviously at all the plates Ralph had put on the barbell.

The bull now crouched under the barbell with the bar touching his shoulders and waited for Lee to get in position behind him to spot him before answering, "It's because of how it works at the cellular level by keeping your muscle cells from getting too acidic which contributes to muscle fatigue."

"So it delays fatigue?" Lee asked with his thinner white arms under Ralph's larger black ones. He made sure not to touch him as the bull lifted off and slowly squatted down, making Lee move out of the way slightly as the bull's muscular rear moved back. Lee watched Ralph's glutes, calves, and the muscles in his thighs that he had forgotten the names of tense as the bull grunted, lifting the weights with them.

He was too busy staring at the bull's muscles that he didn't notice Ralph was speaking until he had finished.

"Sorry, what?"

Ralph grunted as he squatted again, repeating himself, "Yeah, it delays it, letting you work out for a lot longer than one normally would. It also increases your strength slightly."

"Really?" Lee asked, flicking his eyes to all the weights Ralph was squatting.

"Yeah, but you still need to work for it. No shortcuts," grunted Ralph as he slowly rose up from his last squat and set the barbell back onto the rack with a heavy clank. He let out a loud breath of relief and started taking off the plates and putting them back on their stands.

Looking at the barbell and Ralph's muscles, Lee acted on impulse and blurted out as Ralph pulled off the last plate, "Can I try?"

"Try what?" Ralph asked, holding the plate.

"Try doing squats with the barbell." Lee had only ever done goblet squats with dumbbells not even close to the weights that the bull had just squatted.

"Yeah, sure!" Ralph said with a huge grin, putting the plate back on then adding more.

Lee crouched under the bar and got into position when Ralph put the final plates on the bar and wiped it down. There were more weights on it than any dumbbell he'd used but still nowhere close to how much Ralph could lift. He jolted when he felt a hand on his lower back and another on his chest.

"Straighten your back," informed Ralph, correcting Lee's posture, tapping the outside of the horse's hooves with his own to adjust his hoof placement. He moved behind Lee, putting his arms underneath his, without touching, and said, "Okay, you're good. Now slowly lift up with your legs."

Lee slowly lifted the barbell from its rack, grunting as he felt the weight bare down on his shoulders. He took a couple of breaths before squatting and bumping something with his rear. He was confused for a moment about what he hit before Ralph said.

"Oh, sorry."

Lee's nose and the inside of his ears went beet red. The thin fabric of his gym shorts was the only barrier between the bull's crotch and his relatively bare rear. The only things on his rear, asides from the shorts, were the straps of his jockstrap. He'd gotten jockstraps after his first gym session like Ralph had suggested. Initially he'd only gotten a few for his time at the gym and had grown to like how freeing they felt while keeping his cock and balls secured and eventually replaced all his underwear with them. He even wore them to bed, and only them. He'd never liked sleeping in the nude before because he didn't like how everything flopped around, but the jocks solved that problem.

"Sorry, I think I squatted too fast," Lee said, not able to hide his blush with him holding the barbell on his shoulders and also not able to hide the growing erection that confused him.

"No, you did it right. I just didn't move out of the way in time," Ralph said.

Lee didn't have to worry about his growing erection for long as the blood rushing to his cock was redirected to the rest of the body as he flexed his muscles to lift the barbell back up and down. He repeated those motions a few more times, struggling each time before Ralph grabbed the bar just as his legs buckled.

"You did great but I think that's enough of that for now," Ralph said, easily lifting the barbell back onto its rack.

Lee sat down on a nearby bench of a bench press and blew off a lock of his mane that got free from his ponytail from his face. He rubbed his tense sides and belly. While rubbing he noticed a series of hard bumps going down his belly, "I thought squats only did your legs."

"No, these do your abs and obliques as well," Ralph said as he pulled the plates off and returned them to their stand. "And a bit of your back as well."

"I only saw your glutes and leg muscles working in it," panted Lee.

"You were looking at my butt?" Ralph asked, smirking as he wiped down the bar.

"What? No. Well, yeah, but not like that," Lee stammered, his nose growing redder with each stutter.

"It's fine, I'm just mucking with you. Kinda hard not to stare with it all sticking out like that," Ralph laughed, walking up to Lee and offering him a hand, "Any more of my workouts you want to try?"

Lee thought on it while looking at the offered hand. He knew if he did that he'd start hurting again in the mornings and it was such a struggle convincing himself to get out of bed and go back to the gym during that. But the soreness did eventually fade into dull aches that were turned into pleasurable stretches. He was also envious on how much the bull could seemingly lift weights he struggled with so easily. He also loved impressing the bull during workouts and he still felt hyped from the pre-workout he drank.

Lee looked up to the bull and grabbed the hand offered to him and pulled himself back up.

***

"Good, good. Don't lock your arms," warned Ralph as Lee struggled to finish the last few reps on the bench press.

There were only a few plates on the barbell but Lee struggled with it regardless, his pecs and triceps straining to push the barbell off his chest. He was coated in sweat, his loosened lock of his white mane sticking to his face and stinging an eye. Breathing hard the barbell was stuck halfway up off his chest, his arms trembling and their muscles refusing to push the barbell further. He saw Ralph's black hands start to come closer to grab the barbell.

"No. No, I can do it," Lee said, breathing harder and strained even harder to push it upwards. He closed his eye to stop it from being stung by his sweaty mane.

Ralph, pulled his hands away but still kept them close to catch the barbell if it dropped.

"I don't want you to hurt yourself,"

"I won't," Lee groaned as the barbell started to slowly inch higher and higher until, finally, the final rep was completed. The barbell was dropped backwards back onto its rack and Lee let his arms drop to his sides with a gasp. He was sore and exhausted, more exhausted than he'd been in a long time. His panting didn't feel like he wasn't exhaling hard enough and the only thing that did was the occasional deep yawn.

He dragged himself up into a seated position and panted, "I think I crashed from the pre-workout."

"Less crash and more that you worked out for an hour longer than you normally do." Ralph said as he slid the plates off the barbell.

Lee quickly looked at the bull, "What?!"

Ralph simply pointed over his shoulder to the clock on the wall. It wasn't actually an hour longer than Lee normally worked out for, but it was a little over fifty minutes longer.

Lee wiped the sweat and lock of his mane off his face, "Well sh--"

"Language."

"Dang" corrected Lee with clenched teeth.

"You did great," Ralph said, helping Lee up and handing him his towel to wipe the bench and bar down.

"Tell me that tomorrow when I feel like you," Lee rubbed his sore arms after he wiped everything down.

"Like me?"

"A geriatric old man," said Lee as he walked past the bull towards the locker room.

"Oh, ha ha. I'm not even ten years older than you. A massage helps get rid of most of that before it even starts though," Ralph mentioned as they walked to the locker room.

"So I'm off by one year. And nah, I'm good," Lee said, thinking of how much the price a massage would be. Ralph was also the only masseur he knew and worried about popping a boner during a massage if he booked an appointment with the bull.

"If it's price you're worried about, I can hook you up with a discount. It's my own business I run out of my house so I can dole out discounts if I want." Ralph said as they entered the locker room.

Ralph walked over to the locker he had his belongings in while Lee lingered by the large mirror lining the wall where the sinks were. His arms caught his attention from the corner of his eye and he rubbed them, looking over them in a new light. Looking into the mirror Lee flexed his right arm and his eyes widened. He ran his fingers over his bicep, tricep and delt which now stood out as he flexed. He was still skinny but he now had very noticeable tone, even still showing in his shoulders and upper arms when not flexing.

"You've made great progress," Ralph said from behind Lee, shaking a shaker cup and spooking the horse. "Want me to take a progress pic?"

Lee thought for a moment, looking at his arm in the mirror before handing Ralph his phone and saying, "Sure."

Ralph set his shaker cup down and stood back, holding the phone up to take the picture but paused, looking at the white equine expectantly.

Wondering why the bull was looking at him like that Lee went to ask him before he remembered, "Right! The shirt."

He pulled his singlet off, noticing that at some point he'd stopped tying the straps to keep them from falling off his formally lanky form. He also noticed what he'd only felt after he finished the squats, he had visible abs. Only the top two abdominals were visible and there was only the vaguest of outlines of the bottom four but they could be easily felt underneath his white fur and skin.

"You've made really great progress," Ralph said in a lower voice making Lee smile and blush slightly as he flexed for the camera, blowing the loose lock of his mane from his face.

Ralph handed the phone back to Lee and he flicked between the two progress photos. He did make a lot of progress and not just in muscle tone. He was smiling in the newer photo and wasn't trying to hide his chest with his arm. He was also standing straight. Lee didn't know when he stopped slouching but looking around the locker room it was obvious that he had, everything looked shorter, even Ralph, with Lee having to look down at the bull who stood closer to him.

The bull had done so much for Lee, working pro bono to get the equine into shape. He wanted to show Ralph how grateful he was. He had an idea how to show it but no clue whether the bull would reciprocate. It seemed that Ralph would occasionally playfully flirt with him but Lee had always waved it off as just that. Playing around. The muscular bovine was always rather open about his orientation.

Lee started leaning down when a female voice called out, "Cleaner!"

Lee snapped back up and called out that the two were decent while mentally slapping himself. He had nearly put his friendship with Ralph at risk. Just because the bull was gay didn't mean he would've welcomed the kiss and there was no way the bull would be a bottom.

Both Lee and Ralph quickly got their change of clothes out of their lockers as the cleaner, an elderly female quokka, wheeled in her cleaning trolley. They ducked into neighbouring shower stalls as the cleaner got to work.

The intense spray of water from the showerhead felt soothing to Lee's aching lats, traps and other back muscles that he'd either forgotten the name of or didn't learn. He started rubbing the base of his neck, digging his fingers in to get to the deeper aches, when Ralph spoke up over the sound of their showers from the other side of the partition.

"Your workout today was a lot more involved than what you normally do."

"Yeah, I had fun doing it, and I think I want to do it more," Lee said as he ducked his head under the spray and washed his mane that he'd let down before entering the shower stall. "Even if I'm gonna regret it tomorrow morning."

"You said you just want to get into shape." Lee heard the soap dispenser in the bull's stall squirt soap, "Doing more of my kind of exercises would be to do more muscle gain."

"Yeah, about that," Lee said, trailing off as he worked the soap over his body trying to think how to broach the subject. "What would I need to do to get into that bodybuilding stuff?"

"What kind of bodybuilding? Competition?" asked Ralph.

"Ew, no," Lee said, shaking his head despite the bull not being able to see the gesture, "The kind that doesn't look like you have steroids for breakfast and actually have a bit of fat. Like you."

"A healthy amount!" Lee quickly added, remembering what Ralph told him about the word 'fat' and not wanting to insult him.

"Don't worry, I know what you meant," Ralph said, his shower turning off. "And I'm more a Powerlifter than a bodybuilder."

"What's the difference?" Lee asked before scrunching his face, already regretting asking as Ralph started explaining.

"Well, A bodybuilder is pretty much focused on looks. They lift weights to just bulk up and they try to keep fat at an absolute minimum so their muscles will stand out more. Competitive bodybuilders even dehydrate themselves to make them stand out even more. It's disgustingly unhealthy."

"A powerlifter though is focused on building overall strength and power. Appearance isn't really a main goal. Strength and power is. We lift weights to build raw strength and eat lots of calories to help towards that goal. Workout supplements pretty much become a necessity for when you're bodybuilding or doing powerlifter training."

Lee heard Ralph's stall door open as the bull stepped out, saying, "Anyway, back on track. Don't want to talk your ear off."

"Thank god," Lee mouthed.

"I can train you for that easily enough but it raises some questions. Does it seem fun to you? Is that the kind of lifestyle you want to dedicate yourself to? Cause that's what it is, a lifestyle. What you've been doing is more casual."

Lee stood under the shower spray, thinking. The soap had long since washed off his body and down the drain. He only joined the gym to get into shape to more easily attract a partner. He never knew that he'd come to love it as much as he did.

He flexed an arm and traced the tips of his fingers over the defined biceps, triceps and delts and nodded, "Yeah."

"You sure?"

Turning the water off, Lee said more firmly, "Yes. What should I do first?"

"Alright," Ralph said with a clap as Lee towelled off in the stall, "There's gonna be a lot of big changes in your lifestyle, so we'll start with diet. You have any lactose free yogurt?"

"Yeah, got a big tub of it in the fridge back home." answered Lee as he wrapped his towel around his waist and walked out of the stool to see Ralph similarly wrapped only in a towel sitting on the bench by the lockers.

"Perfect!"He stood up and opened his locker. "I didn't even know they made lactose free in large tubs. Anyway, get a bowl of granola, preferably the kind with nuts and keep an eye on the sugar amount, and put a really large dollop of the yogurt on it. Maybe even some fruit as well."

"Like apples?" Lee asked as he opened his own locker.

"No, fruit like bananas and peaches or berries," Ralph said before dropping his towel making Lee turn away with a blush and quickly see if the cleaner was still around. But she and her trolley were already gone. With the pair being the only ones in the room he snuck a few peeks of the bull's naked, muscular rear. Risking longer glances when his black-furred rear was framed by the jockstrap that was pulled up his legs.

Lee looked away, grabbing his own jock from the locker and putting it on underneath his towel when Ralph started turning towards him. If there was one downside to jockstraps that he had found was that they made it painfully obvious when he was aroused.

"What about in Winter?" Lee asked, pulling a pair of shorts on before finally dropping his own towel. "Seems like it'd be too cold for yogurt in the morning."

"When it's cold you could have something like porridge," answered Ralph as he got fully clothed. "To up the amount of protein you-"

"Can add nuts," finished Lee, pulling his bag out of the locker and closing it. "And I assume I need to eat more carbs?"

"Oh, yeah. Rice and pasta are your best friends and so are eggs. Eggs, eggs and more eggs. You're gonna be eating so many eggs. Oh, and make sure the pasta is whole grain, that the rice is brown and what bread you have is either wholemeal or multigrain."

"Oh..."

Ralph looked at Lee and sighed, "You've only been eating white bread, haven't you?"

"No," Lee lied.

Ralph sighed again, rubbing between his eyes and said, "Well, make sure you switch over to wholemeal or multigrain and I have a bunch of recipes I could give you so you don't get sick of having eggs, rice or pasta constantly. They're on my tablet back home so I can just copy them onto my computer then a USB for you."

Ralph grabbed his bag and shouldered it while he closed his locker. "Speaking of which. This is a big leap for you, let's head over to my place and celebrate with a massage. Free of charge. They're great for reducing strain after a workout, so it'd do you good to have one every now and then."

"I don't know," Lee said, grabbing his own bag and shutting his locker, "Massages are expensive."

"Then it's a good thing you know a professional masseur then, huh?" said Ralph with a big grin, nudging Lee with his elbow.

"You're not gonna take no for an answer, are you?"

"Nope."

"Ugh, fine," Lee said and turned to leave the locker room, catching Ralph in the mirror pump his fist. He was confused on why the bull did that.

Ralph quickly caught up to Lee and put his large arm around the horse's shoulders, "It's gonna be great. Actually, it's a sports massage. They're actually a bit painful."

Lee gave him a quizzical look, "I thought massages are supposed to feel good. Why would I want a painful one?"

"You know how you feel really sore the day after a workout?" Ralph asked.

Lee nodded.

"A proper massage would help reduce that by a lot_ _and you feel great after a sports massage despite how much they hurt during," Ralph said as they passed the display of workout supplements. "Oh, while we're still here we should get a tub of pre-workout and some protein powder. It's sixty dollars when you get the two together, that's a steal."

"What about when the sale's over?" Lee asked, worried about his wallet.

"Don't worry. I know a warehouse where they buy in bulk and sell on the cheap. I can hook you up. It won't be as cheap as this but it's a lot cheaper than what you'd find at the shops." Ralph said as he picked up some pre-workout tubs. "Now what flavour do you want? We have Pineapple Orange, Cotton Candy and, uh," he put down the cotton candy tub and picked up another, "Peach Mango."

"Oh, Mango." Lee said and grabbed the tub from the bull's hand, telling him, "I'm paying for them though."

Ralph held his hands up in surrender and gestured towards the tubs of protein powder, letting the taller horse look them over himself. Lee was deciding between the Frozen Banana and Mint Chocolate Chip flavours when he noticed something odd about the tubs.

"Why are they measured in pounds?" he asked.

"It's an American brand. Most of them are," answered Ralph.

"So the yanks have a lot of good brands?"

Ralph waved a hand and hissed before saying, "Ehhhhhh, I wouldn't put it like that."

Lee slid the pre-workout and Frozen Banana flavoured protein powder over to George to ring up and said. "Okay, I'll bite. What happens over there with this stuff?"

The bull rubbed his chin and said, "Where to start. Well, there's a lot of companies out there that do a lot shady stuff when making them. Not this one. Like I said before, it's a good brand and it's the one I_ use. These companies put a lot of stuff that's either illegal or not _yet illegal and these new supplements are pretty much illegalised the second they're put into the market. There's a few good brands that don't do that at all, like, I repeat, this one."

"Oh," Lee said, surprised. That wasn't what he was expecting to hear and had no idea what else to say about it.

"There's one story a friend from over there told me about one of the those companies where they marketed a pre-workout drink that turned out to be a small vial filled with an oily liquid."

Lee threw a hand up in confusion, not understanding what it meant to which Ralph answered by miming jabbing a needle in his leg.

Lee's eyebrows shot up in shock and said, "How was that even legal?"

"It wasn't," Ralph laughed and pointed towards George who was waiting for Lee to pay for the supplements.

Lee paid, thanked the koala and stuffed the tubs into his bag but struggled to get the zipper fully closed.

"It was hilarious," Ralph said, continuing the story, "They said you were meant to use an eyedropper and drink a squirt of it before your workout. But it was obvious that you were meant to inject it."

"What happened to the company?" Lee asked as they exited the gym, Ralph holding the door open as Lee still struggled with his bag's zipper. "Obviously they got done in but what exactly happened?"

"I don't know, I can't remember. It was just after I left high school and before I started going to the gym."

"You weren't always working out?" Lee asked before letting out a victorious "HA!" when he finally got his bag fully zipped.

"No." laughed Ralph, "I was a chubby kid in high school and I joined the gym when I was twenty after I started gaining weight."

"You were overweight?"

"No, I wouldn't put it like that," Ralph corrected, "But I was certainly heading that direction and it wasn't till I was your age that I decided to change my routine to what it is now."

"No, this way," Ralph said, tapping Lee's shoulder when the horse turned to the shopping centre's car park and pointed across the road. "I live just across the road."

Lee followed after the bull. "You live across the road from the shopping centre?!"

"I know it's great," Ralph said with a huge grin, "I only really need to drive to massage clients. I normally run it out of my house in the spare room I converted into my massage room but I do home visits every now and then so I haven't driven anywhere in ages."

"What about when you need to do shopping?" Lee asked as they waited at the crossing for the light to turn green. "You gotta drag the shopping back somehow."

"I got a granny trolley I use for that," Ralph said, waving the question away. "And I live just across the road. I can just do multiple trips."

"What about when it's too large to carry?"

"Delivery," Ralph said, shrugging before crossing the road. He pointed three houses down the street to a house with a plastic sign hanging on its fence. "Just down there."

"You mentioned that this is the brand you use and that some brands of pre-workout have that creatine stuff in it but this one doesn't."

'Yeah, I did. Is there something more you want to know about it?" asked Ralph as the pair reached his front gate and entered his yard, making their way to the front door. Ralph fished around his bag for his keys.

"Why don't you use a brand that already has creatine in it?" asked Lee.

"Because, even though it can be annoying that the brand sells a lot separately, it allows me to have more control on how much I use. Most brands don't have a full serving of creatine in their pre-workouts, which is 5 grams. That's for creatine monohydrate mind you. I don't know the exact serving size of HCL. I just know that it's smaller."

The front door was unlocked and the pair went inside. Lee set his bag down next to Ralph's by the door and followed to a room at the start of the bull's hallway. The room was relatively bare with thick curtains blocking out most of the light, a massage table set in the middle with a folded up sheet on top and a small wicker basket underneath it, and a small stereo with CDs resting on a small cabinet in a corner.

"No massage oils?" Lee asked, not seeing any as he sat on the table.

"Oh, I don't use oils."

Lee felt suddenly nervous about getting a massage from the bull and was hoping to set him off on a tangent. "So what's the difference between the two? The creatine."

"Creatine HCL stands for creatine hydrochloride. They bind the creatine to hydrochloric acid to make it dissolve into water better and be absorbed by the body faster. This means your body breaks it down faster and your muscle cells absorb it faster. Because it's absorbed better there's less side effects."

"Side effects?"

The bull waved off the horse's concerns, "As long as you follow the serving suggestions and don't have any pre-existing conditions you'll be fine. Your kidneys are fine, right?"

Lee nodded his head.

"Then you'll be fine. If you did though or still have some concerns, I say pay your GP a visit to see if it would cause any problems. But you don't so you'd be fine and I recommend Monohydrate anyway. It's purer, the purest on the market in fact and it's also the oldest on the market so we know the most about it. It's also a lot cheaper than HCL. The warehouse I get my stuff from sells the brand's creatine so I can get you some."

Lee pointed at his chest and said, "Okay, but I'm buying it."

Ralph put his hands up in surrender, letting the horse have it his way. He clapped his hands together and asked, "Right, enough of that tangent. Do you need to go to the toilet before we start?"

Lee shook his head again.

Ralph nodded and walked to the stereo and sorted through the CDs, choosing which one to put on and said, "Then strip down and lay down on the table."

"How much?"

"However much feels comfortable. You can put your clothes in the basket and cover yourself with the sheet." Ralph said as he picked a CD and the sound of soft chimes and twanging strings filled the room.

Lee saw no use in trying to distract the bull further and pulled off his shirt, dropping it in the basket. He paused at his shorts, now regretting that he'd replaced all of his normal underwear with jockstraps. He didn't want to moon the black bull and wanted to keep his shorts on and the bull did say however much he felt comfortable with. But he felt that the shorts would interfere when his legs would get worked on. Reluctantly, Lee slid his shorts off, dumping them in the basket.

He unfolded the sheet and quickly draped it over his mostly exposed rear. He'd just put his head through the table's face hole when Ralph asked, "So you done?"

Lee hummed a yes and he felt a tap on his shoulder and Ralph said, "Flip onto your back. The stretching's better done like that."

Ralph lifted up the sheet so Lee could flip over on the table. Lee felt the sheet get adjusted, straightened over his legs and pulled up to cover his shoulders, leaving only his head and neck exposed.

Ralph then shifted the sheet to expose Lee's right arm and leg, tucking the sheet under each limb. His hands went back to his exposed leg, one slid underneath his knee and the other softly gripped the back of his hoof and began to lift the leg, keeping the knee bent.

Before Lee could even think of lifting his leg up to help Ralph the bull said, "No need to help with the process. Just relax and let me do all the work."

Letting the bull continue, Lee relaxed his leg and let it be gently rotated clockwise across his body a few times before being rotated counter-clockwise. His leg soon stopped being rotated and he heard and felt Ralph climb up onto the table.

Lee's heart fluttered in excitement before he felt his leg get extended upwards. He looked up at the bull and asked, "What?"

"For taller clients, like you, I have to get up on here to properly stretch their hamstrings." explained the bull before placing a hand on top of Lee's knee resting the back of his hoof on his shoulder and extended the leg farther.

Lee nodded, slapping himself mentally and closing his eyes as his leg slowly moved higher up. He let out a satisfied groan as he felt tenseness at the back of his thigh get stretched out.

Ralph kept Lee's leg in that stretched position for several breaths before smoothly letting his leg bend back down and climbed off. He rotated his leg a few times before stopping and pushing his knee towards his left shoulder.

Lee let out a louder groan of satisfaction as the right side of his rear was stretched. It was stretched for several breaths before his leg was pulled back. His leg was gently placed back down onto the table but bent into a figure four shape.

Ralph placed a hand on the left side of Lee's hip, his other on his right knee and gently but firmly pushed down.

"Can you feel this stretch?" Ralph asked Lee after the horse didn't let out any noise.

He squeaked out, "Yeah, fuck". The inside of his thigh hurt as it was stretched but it was a good pain.

"Language," chided Ralph before releasing the pressure on Lee's leg and straightening it out, covering it back up with the sheet.

"Oh, what is with you and swearing?" Lee asked as his arm was uncovered and his forearm gently grasped by the bull.

Ralph leant back slightly, pulling Lee's arm with his body weight and said, "My Nana would always get up me for it."

"You lived with your grandmother?" Lee asked, letting the bull pull him around and stretch him as he saw fit.

"She lived with us," explained Ralph as he moved around the table and pulled Lee's arm up over his head, Lee letting out another small groan as he felt the stretch all the way down his back.

Ralph then walked to Lee's left side, bringing his right arm with him and pulled it over his chest. He left Lee's arm draped over his chest reached over the horse, sliding a hand under Lee's right shoulder. He placed his other hand on the right side of Lee's hip and leaned backwards, pulling Lee's shoulder back with him.

He stopped when Lee's lower back popped and the horse let out a small grunt.

"You haven't been stretching properly," chided Ralph as he gently lowered Lee down and covered him back up with the sheet. Ralph then repeated the stretching on Lee's left side.

The white equine closed his eyes and relaxed under the bull's ministrations, drifting off and only returning when the stretches got a touch painful. Eventually the large bovine stopped and lifted the sheet off of him.

"When you said that these massages were painful I expected something that felt like torture," Lee said, thinking the massage was over.

"They are. That was just stretching exercises." Ralph said prompting Lee to flip over and covering the horse with the sheet again but leaving his back exposed. He made Lee jump slightly in surprise when his fingers went underneath the waistband of Lee's jock and tucked the folded edge of the sheet under it.

"Everything alright?" Ralph asked.

"Yeah," Lee lied, his voice cracking. He cleared his throat and continued, "Yeah, I just thought you were gonna yank my jock off for a second there." He was thankful that his face was hidden by the massage table's face hole so the bull wouldn't be able to see his nose turning red and also thankful that the sheet was covering his tail so the bull wouldn't see the equine struggling to keep it from flagging up.

The bull let out a loud laugh and clapped Lee's bare back, "Yeah, nah. That kind of stuff costs extra."

"What?!"

"I'm kidding, I'm not that kind of masseur," Ralph said, still chuckling as he took his hand off Lee's back and walked away. Lee didn't know why until he heard the pop of a cap.

"You said you don't use oil," Lee said, confused.

"I don't," Ralph said, squirting something onto his hand, "It's too slippery for sports massage. This is lotion, it gives me the right amount of grip and slide."

The bovine rubbed the lotion over Lee's before stopping to say, "This is your first sports massage so I'm going to warn you. This is gonna hurt but no matter how much you'll want to, don't tense up."

"You already told me it's gonna hurt." Lee said, bracing himself when he felt an elbow dig in slightly below his shoulder blade.

"I know but this'll really hurt, and I said don't tense," Ralph said, not continuing until Lee relaxed under the elbow. "Ready?"

"I guess, as ready as I'll ever be_-_AAAGH F-!"

"Language," Ralph warned as he roughly dug his elbow along the muscles between his spine and shoulder blade.

Hissing through clenched teeth and trying to stay loose despite the pain, Lee growled, "I didn't even say anything."

"You were gonna," said the bovine as he switched to the other side of Lee's back and got another loud groan of pain from the white horse.

"Why do people willingly do this?" Lee hissed through clenched teeth.

"Because of this," Ralph said with a smile and lifted his elbow from his back, and Lee gave a long, drawn out moan of relief and pleasure. The muscles that the bull had been working on were still rather sore but the relief Lee had felt vastly outweighed the soreness.

"Understand now?" asked the bull.

"Uh-huh," slurred Lee, relaxing into the table and enjoying the relief the rough massage gave.

"Time for the arms."

Lee groaned and grumbled, "Fine, let's get it done w-AGH!"

"Do you have to do that when I'm in the middle of talking?!" hissed Lee when the bovine wrapped both hands around Lee's upper arm and roughly dug into the muscles. "It feels like you're trying to rip the muscles off the bone."

"I like seeing your reaction and to get the muscles completely released I have to dig right on in there," chuckled Ralph and continued working the horse's muscles, eventually working his way to his legs.

"You feel how noticeable the difference is in your left thigh than your right because of the massage?" Ralph asked, easily bouncing the muscle in his hands before switching to Lee's right thigh where the muscles were noticeably harder and had less give.

"Yeah, actually," Lee said, surprised at the massive difference. "Though I wouldn't exactly call this a mass-ACK!"

Ralph started chuckling.

"I wouldn't call this a massage, torture's more fitting. I wish you wouldn't do that," Lee told Ralph which just made the large bovine chuckle more.

"I only have this thigh to go then I'll let you get dressed while I get you a drink. Massages make people pretty thirsty." Ralph worked his large hands down the back of Lee's thigh.

Lee was actually pretty thirsty but he thought it was because of the prior workout and not the massage. "Yeah, a drink'd be nice."

Eventually the painful massage came to an end and Ralph left Lee by himself to get him a drink and let him get dressed.

Lee slid off the table with a groan. It felt like he was beaten with a tenderiser but he couldn't deny that his muscles felt looser than they would've been by stretching and it definitely felt like he wouldn't feel horribly stiff the next few days, so he found it a worthy trade-off.

He bent over to pick up his clothes from the basket when the feeling of his bare rear reminded him of his jock and when his tail had started hiking up when Ralph tucked the sheet under it. He couldn't understand why he started doing that, even thinking back on it had his tail rising again. He never tried bottoming when he was with a guy but he could never get off on the idea of bottoming for one so he never bothered trying it.

He rubbed his bare rear, and when his finger brushed along his crack, his tail quickly flagged up the rest of the way and it felt like a swarm of butterflies were suddenly set loose in his stomach as the thought of pushing down onto the bull came to mind. He quickly pulled his hand away and pulled his shorts on, adjusting the pouch of his jock so the growing bulge wasn't so obvious.

He was turning to face the door as he put his shirt on when he jumped when he saw Ralph opening the door with a glass of orange juice.

"Sorry, didn't mean to spook you," Ralph said, looking confused and handing Lee the glass.

"It's fine," Lee said and took a swig of juice, sighing with relief that the bovine didn't see him groping himself. "Ugh, pulpy."

"I juiced them myself. Just pure juice, none of that extra stuff that takes away the flavour and nowhere near the amount of sugar as the stuff you find in the shops. Though it also means that it doesn't last anywhere near as long."

"How much do you make?" Lee asked, sipping the juice, trying to get as little pulp in his mouth as he could.

"Just enough for a small pitcher. I'd prefer more but they're not in season." Ralph said, disappointed before perking up and clapping his hands. "Now, follow me to the living room and I'll give you the recipes and talk more about what stuff in your lifestyle needs changing. It'll be a long talk."

With that the bull turned and left the room, leaving Lee by himself, his glass of orange juice shaking. He was actually doing it, he thought. He took a deep breath to steel his nerves and stop shaking and then followed Ralph.